yearning

[ yur-ning ]

noun

1. deep longing, especially when accompanied by tenderness or sadness:

   a widower's yearning for his wife.

2. an instance of such longing.

ˈyearning

/ ˈjɜːnɪŋ /

noun

1. an intense or overpowering longing, desire, or need; craving

Derived Forms

• ˈyearningly, adverb

Other Words From

• yearning·ly adverb
• un·yearning adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of yearning¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English gierninge; equivalent to yearn + -ing ¹

Synonym Study

See desire.

Example Sentences

This may or may not show a national yearning to complain as a means of passing the time, and it hints that the complaining might continue even through this coronavirus-wrecked year when maybe it shouldn’t.

From Washington Post

Every image is full of the deepest yearnings for freedom and independence.

From Washington Post

It’s a yearning that’s become familiar during this pandemic, for those things I know I can’t have.

From Eater

Eventually, he says, “there will be a yearning to meet new people once again, and when it’s safe to do so, we’ll be there at the ready.”

From Fortune

Yet they’re also about many different types of isolation and the human yearning to not be alone.

From Science News

Yet, many do not find in this shared, human yearning a reason to regard immigrants as “like us” rather than “not like us.”

From The Daily Beast

He was constantly yearning to be a politician and an editor at the same time.

From The Daily Beast

Yet the tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free did not always find what they expected in America.

From The Daily Beast

Each was in a day-by-day survival mode—each in his own way yearning for self-worth.

From The Daily Beast

“If You Had My Love” was silky-smooth with just the right amount of anguished yearning.

From The Daily Beast

But also it was an inarticulate yearning to find that state of safety where he and she dwelt secure from separation—in the 'sea.'

From Project Gutenberg

She could have swooned, so intoxicant was her wonder and her solemn joy and her yearning after righteousness in love.

From Project Gutenberg

It was the starving sense of loneliness, the aching sense of loss, the yearning and the vain desire that made it seem so long.

From Project Gutenberg

There were other causes entering into this unrest besides his yearning desire to win Ramona for his wife.

From Project Gutenberg

He longed for death with a full and yearning desire, and he could kiss the hand that would be merciful and give the fatal blow.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• ambition
• appetite
• aspiration
• craving
• eagerness
• fascination
• hankering
• hunger
• longing
• passion
• thirst